Ariana Grande responds to accusations of cultural appropriation over Japanese tattoo

Ariana Grande responds to accusations of cultural appropriation over her Japanese tattoo.

Getty Images / Ariana Grande's Instagram

Ariana Grande went on a Twitter rant after being accused of cultural appropriation for her misspelled Japanese tattoo.

The 7 Rings singer responded to a TMZ tweet about a reported US$1 million offer to remove her tattoo, which was supposed to read “7 Rings” but instead it translated to a portable traditional Japanese charcoal grill used for barbecuing.

“I’ll give y’all a million to get off my nuts,” Grande responded to TMZ.

She then tweeted (and later deleted), “I also went back and got it fixed with the help of my tutor to be more accurate. I can’t read or write kanji obviously. what do you want me to do? it was done out of love and appreciation. what do you want me to say?”

She continued: “u kno how many people make this mistake and DON’T care just cause they like how it looks? bruh … i care soooo much. What would u like me to do or say? forreal.”

“There is a difference between appropriation and appreciation. My Japanese fans were always excited when i wrote in Japanese or wore Japanse sayings on my clothing. However, all of the merch with Japanese on it was taken down from my site not that anyone cared to notice,” she wrote.

In another response to fans (that she’s since deleted), the 25-year-old singer admitted that she has “crippling anxiety.”

“I have crippling anxiety lol. I don’t like hurtin ppl,” she wrote. “People on this app really don’t know how to be forgiving or gentle when someone has made an innocent mistake. No one considers feelings other than their own. It’s very pointless. Ion even know why I’m talking ab this anymore.”

The kanji character 七 means “seven,” while 輪 means “wheel or ring.” But, when the characters are put together, it means “shichirin,” a portable traditional Japanese charcoal grill used for barbecuing.

She addressed the mess-up in a now-deleted tweet.

“Indeed, I left out ‘つの指’ which should have gone in between,” she wrote. “It hurt like f**k n still looks tight. I wouldn’t have lasted one more symbol lmao. But this spot also peels a ton and won’t last so if I miss it enough I’ll suffer thru the whole thing next time.

On Jan. 30, the Sweetener singer posted a new video of her tattoo, with added characters, saying her ink is “slightly better.”

Instagram

Instagram

“Thanks to my tutor for helping me fix and to @kanenavasard for being a legend. And to my doctor for the lidocaine shots (no joke). Rip tiny charcoal grill. Miss you man. I actually really liked u,” she wrote.

In other Grande news, a Las Vegas artist is suing the pop star, alleging federal copyright infringement over an image of a woman in a candle flame in the pop star’s widely-viewed God is a Woman music video.

Representatives for Grande did not immediately respond Monday to messages about the lawsuit filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Nevada by lawyers for Vladimir Kush and his company Kush Fine Arts Las Vegas.

The lawsuit calls the image that appears a little more than a minute into Grande’s 2018 music video nearly identical to paintings that Kush painted and copyrighted in 1999 and 2000.

Kush seeks unspecified monetary damages and a court order to remove the video from the internet.